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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LightPhoenix" data-source="post: 5427274" data-attributes="member: 115">It will allow them more flexibility on their weekly schedule.  They don't have to worry about integrating articles into a whole.  If they miss an article out, they don't have to go and reformat their compilation.I may not like the weekly "schedule," and I use that term loosely, but the more WotC realizes that ezines are not magazines, the better off their digital initiatives will be.There's a good reason to keep the magazine titles - a clear demarcation between content meant for players and that meant for DMs.  They're titles that have long since entered shorthand for determining the content of the articles.  Plus, nostalgia keeps the old players happy.My guess, and this is only a guess, and an optimistic one at that:My supposition is despite the grousing by people here (including myself), WotC is starting to realize that DDI is actually a viable business strategy.  The subscription model tends to provide more stable income than one-off payments, which includes books.  Of course, there are many more players than DMs, so the obvious business strategy is to drive players to DDI in order to take advantage of the stability.So, like many others, I think that the canceled player books will eventually be converted to digital offerings, as a way of driving players to the website.  However, you have to have a hook to get players going there - that would be Heroes of Shadow.  I would not in the least be surprised to see references to, if not a whole ad for, DDI.  It also likely provides a test point for book sales; what are the numbers like right now, should we consider more/less books, format changes, whatever.  They still want a feel for the book market.On the other hand, DM-flavored books (IMO) gain little from the move to DDI.  Since they have less people buying them, it might be worth it to leave them as books; many of the DMs are probably DDI subscribers anyway.  It's basically an added little bit of income from the small portion of their consumers that run the game.  Note that Heroes of Shadow was moved to hardcover, but the others weren't - less overhead cost for printing a product that will make less money.Looking at the long term, I suspect that if there's a future edition (of any type), that the online offerings will be a much bigger draw.  In the same way 4E incorporates stuff WotC learned from 3E, a future edition would certainly incorporate everything has learned about digital offerings from teh start.</blockquote>

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